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| No lie, this is how I found them this morning. |
We were lucky that we were given two iPads from Adam's work. Neither Adam or I felt the need to give up our devices and make the i Switch, and it turns out that they are perfect for the girls. From the time Madison was eighteen months old, she's had the ability to use the iPad without incident (ok, one incident).
Anyway, we never used them a ton, and they were pretty much loaded up with learning games, and that's it. No guilt whatsoever. While Madison waited, sometimes for hours, on blood results at the hematologist, it kept us sane and occupied.
Then the girls discovered Disney Jr and access to their favorite shows.
From there it was a slippery slope to Netflix.
And now they're into YouTube.
At first, Madison and I explored YouTube for performances. The kid loves to dance, loves musical theater, and it was a fun way for us to explore what was out there. When she was intrigued by lyrical or hip hop (two styles not offered to her yet), we could search for SYTYCD performances or routines from the Dance Mom girls, and she'd copy them in our kitchen. When she became obsessed with the music from Matilda and Seussical, we could catch all the musical numbers. As a kid who loved this kind of stuff, I was so happy that an entire world of performances was open to her. How cool to be a kid in 2015!
But somehow, and I'll admit that I'm not 100% sure how, both girls navigated off the YouTube suggestions of the Tony Awards and onto kids opening blind bags. And a new obsession was born.
Seriously. Sometimes it's not even kids. It's adults with fancy manicures opening little surprises from bags or eggs or boxes, exclaiming with delight, and sharing which characters you can collect. The girls are obsessed. Shopkins, Fash'ems, Mash'ems, Squishy Pops, MicroLites, you name it. They watch intently. They search for these surprise bags in stores.
Back in July, I was lucky enough to go to Blogger Bash, an event in NYC where I met up with some PR reps, and a few weeks later, they sent me a box to check out. When I opened the UPS package, I knew the girls would freak out. Squishy Pops. Micro Lites. NO. WAY.
I had a few other random blind bags that I'd picked up from the event, so I decided to give them a great surprise. We did our own opening and filmed it for YouTube.
They were thrilled with their loot, but beyond that, they have now watched their own video multiple times. They're strategizing how to get more things to open so they can film another video. We've worked graphing what we've gotten into our homeschool math lessons, and estimating our chances of getting certain characters.
And obviously, they love their collections. The MicroLites are on their nightstands, because it's a perfect nighttime toy before falling asleep. Madison has started making her bracelet with all the charms and ponies from her Squishy Pops.
They are on the blind bag bandwagon in a big way. And I know what Santa will be stuffing the stockings with this year!
Thank you to ChizComm for the Squishy Pops and MicroLites!
